Cotopaxi Province in the context of Cotopaxi

Pichincha (Spanish pronunciation: [piˈtʃintʃa]) is a province of Ecuador located in the northern Sierra region; its capital and largest city is Quito. It is bordered by Imbabura and Esmeraldas to the north, Cotopaxi and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the south, Napo and Sucumbíos to the east, and Esmeraldas and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the west.

Prior to 2008, the canton Santo Domingo de los Colorados was part of the Pichincha Province. It has since become its own province, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

The Pastaza River (Spanish: Río Pastaza, formerly known as the Sumatara) also known as the Patate, flowing in Ecuador and Peru is a large tributary to the Marañón River in the northwestern Amazon Basin of South America.

It has its headwaters in the Ecuadorian province of Cotopaxi, flowing off the northwestern slopes of the volcano Cotopaxi and known as the Patate River. The Patate flows south and in Tungurahua Province it is joined by the Chambo River just upstream from the town of Baños de Agua Santa just north of the volcano Mount Tungurahua and becomes the Pastaza. Seven kilometers east of Baños, it is dammed for the Agoyán hydroelectric project, which has created a silty lagoon by the village of La Cieniga. The Agoyán dam was placed in that location specifically to leave the famous Falls of Agoyán, about 5 km further downstream, intact. After the waterfall the river enters a gorge where there is very fast whitewater with class-4 rapids; it is often used for whitewater rafting although it is not considered to be of the same quality as the Tena River and is therefore less popular for the sport.